Gose | Westbrook Brewing Co.

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Notes / Commercial Description:
This is our interpretation of Gose (pronounced “Gose-uh”), a traditional German-style sour wheat beer brewed with coriander and salt. Once nearly extinct, this very refreshing style is making a comeback.

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Where Gose biers are disappearing from the German beer scene, it seems that American microbrewers are infatuated with the style. The sour and salty tones of the beers are wrapped withing a blanket of wheat for varying levels of sourness and maltiness. However, Westbrook seems to have captured the essence of Goze to near perfection!

Its appearance does little to captivate any confidence- its dull golden hue is cloudy and dense. Its bubbles quickly dissipates and leaves the beer looking murky and sill, and without any real lacing charter. I admit: its quite an ugly duckling.

But the beer livens up after that- its musty bread tones speak of dough, yeast, must and earth. Hghly grainy, the tones are soft, even as lemon and lime tartness try to intervene.

And then we have the beer's taste where everything explodes! The beer is no longer a characterful wheat beer but is now a fortified Sour Ale! Its taste is strikingly of limes. But an earthier taste emerges that is almond-like, bready,marzipan- toasty, and lighly of sea brine. Those savory and salty tones merge with a highly drinkable salt water taffy tone that extends to its earthen straw and hay-like finish.

With its carbonation finishing early, the beer's texture is all about its full layout of wheat that coats the palate evenly and its acidity that quickly cuts through it. This all leads to a sour finish of clean and crisp lime-like bitterness and an echo of bread.

Westbrook's Gose is as close to the style descriptors as I have ever found in the style. Perhaps many will want a drier and less malty taste and texture, I rather like the balance here as I appreciate all things "Berlin" in one beer!

A: The beer is hazy light yellow in color. It poured with a thin white head that died down, leaving a patch of bubbles on the surface and a thin collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of sourness are present in the nose.
T: Like the smell, the taste has light amounts of sour flavors along with hints of salt.
M: It feels light-bodied on the palate with a bit of tartness and has a nearly moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is very easy to drink for the style. It has just enough sourness with little if any saltiness.

I acquired this in a trade. Expectations could not be higher given this beer's reputation as more or less the best beer in the style. Canned 06/27/14. 12 fl oz aluminum can with appealing label art and design and standard pull-tab served cold into a Jester King goblet. Side-poured with standard vigor as no carbonation issues are anticipated.

4% ABV. Reviewed live as a gose per the label.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: 1.5 fingers wide. White in colour. Fizzy and active. Thin and light. Retention is bad - maybe a minute at best. Leaves no lacing as it recedes. A fuller longer-lasting head would be ideal. There's definite room for improvement here.

BODY: Murky cloudy orange-peach with yellow hues. Average vibrance. No yeast particulate or hop sediment is visible, but its murkiness suggests it's unfiltered.

Has a raw overall appearance, evoking honey. It's healthy looking, but isn't great or a stand-out in the style. It looks as most gosebiere do. Not unique or special.

AROMA: A great combination of lime, sea salt, coriander seed, and fresh wheat. Hints of clove honey and floral hop notes, with a dab of nectar. Light lactic sourness. Subtle lemon tartness and twang. Sourdough bread. Sour mashing is evident here, but it's not as "wild" or bacterial as I hoped for. Sourness seems to be maybe a 3-4 out of 10 in terms of intensity. The wheat is lovely, though, and the yeast attenuation seems perfect; this evokes the perfect level of sweetness for the style.

It could be fresher, more tart, and more sour, but all of the core gose components are there. It's an inviting aroma of above average strength, but I wouldn't call it mouthwatering. It just seems like a well-brewed gose.

I'd like it more tart and more sour, but the sea salt is perfect - and that's the key to a good gose. The complementary lime note pairs with the sea salt wonderfully, and is a much more apt choice than lemon. The overall balance is stellar, but I do think there's room for improvement to the build. That said, I really like this beer. I'm just not blown away the way I expected to be given its reputation.

TEXTURE: Tart and smacky on the palate, with a luscious refreshing feel and a teasing push-pull of coarse dry roughness and quenching smoothness - depending on which bit of the structure you focus on. Ultimately, the finish leaves the palate dry, which naturally encourages the drinker's next sip. In this manner, I find my glass quickly disappearing.

OVERALL: It's incredibly drinkable, though the dryness does start to detract after a bit. Is this one of the best beers I've had in the style? Sure. Is it a world-class beer?

...I can imagine a more complex gose, with even more intricacy and subtlety. Perhaps such a gose just hasn't been brewed yet, but in any case I can't claim this a world-class offering. I'll really enjoy finishing this glass, and would happily snatch it up by the 6-pack, but there're noticeable flaws and opportunities for improvement.

This certainly makes me curious to review Westbrook's other offerings. Seems like quite a quality brewery.

A kind co-worker gave me a can of this to sample. Said it was highly rated on BA. "Sour and Salty," most definitely. But delicious? No.

Looks good and pours with minimal head, but the first sip reminds me of the the tapwater at Myrtle Beach: nasty. It tastes more like somebody poured salt and a little bit of lemon juice into a cheap Chardonnay. I just don't get the claim that this is delicious beer.

Yes, I drank it, the whole can. It was a gift, after all, and I wanted to give it a chance. But I would never buy one of these, there are too many good beers out there to waste money on brackish brew.

Served from bottle into a Mother Earth strange. Poured a hazy golden straw yellow with a half finger pure white head that subsided to a very minimal amount fairly quickly. Maintained decent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, tart, meringue, lemon zest, citrus, and salt. The flavor was of sweet malt, salt, tart, citrus, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon rine, and subtle oyster. It had a light feel on the palate with medium carbonation. Overall this was a fairly good brew. I have to be honest that the salt on this one really is the star of the show and makes sure to remind you of this well after each sip as it coats the palate without mercy. I thought it was kind of odd that I picked up on a subtle note of oyster meat on this one on the followthrough. However, it wasn’t too bad. Quite refreshing and an interesting flavor profile to say the least. Definitely worth a try for the true Gose fans and the curious alike.

Pale golden in color with a huge frothy white head. Cans have been overflowing when opened, not from disturbance more from the huge carbonation I'd imagine.
Smell is some cereal grain, lemon, acidity and a hint of orange.
Taste is big tart lemon and a hint of salt and crackery malt.
Way tart for a gose, not particularly to style. Don't get much coriander (not complaining here, tastes like soap to me) and only a hint of salt. Not very balanced. Tasty beer as a sour, but too tart to even be all that refreshing for my palate.

12 oz. can poured into a Burley Oak snifter (canned on 6/16/14, 725/726)

It seems that I missed the best by date (9/14/14) by 64 days.

A: Muddy, brackish dirty blonde brine. Nice bit of finger-head on the pour.
S: Salty seawater, with some tart funk on side.
T: Salty, like moist sea salt. Good and solid gose. An excellent base to build off of, as shown by Gozu and Gose Gone Wild.
M: Tiny bit of rough carbonation.
O: It kind of sucks that my introduction to Westbrook's Gose came in the form of its variants first. I had the Gozu first, which was much complex with the full flavor of the Yuzu in it. Then, I had the Gose Gone Wild, which was brought by its maker to a bottleshare. The GGW is much more tart and more akin to a classic sour. This is great, but really kind of pales in comparison to its brethren.

Growler poured into a weizen glass. Hazy gold with a bright white head that sadly fizzes away to nothing in no time flat. Plenty of carbonation is visible bubbling up through the body, though.

Smells of salty sea air with light notes of coriander and vague sweetness. Just enough malt sweetness to keep the salty/lemon juice combo from becoming completely puckering. Crisp and clean finish with light grain and coriander flavors. Overall a very solid stab at the style. The folks at Westbrook certainly aren't shy about variety, and as with this Gose, the results are generally positive. Well done.

Hmmm... how does one rate a Gose if they have no basis for comparison? Well, I'm certainly going to try! Sours have never been my thing, but I've heard so much about this one in particular that I felt it would be a crime not to give it a try. With Westbrook in my backyard, and their stable of stellar beers, it had to live up to the hype, right? Sort of. Right from the start, the appearance is quite unappealing. Ugly even. Pours from the can in to a fluted pilsner glass with a cloudy, golden-yellow hue and a little transparency. Zero head. I wouldn't even know this is carbonated based upon the appearance. I hate to say this, but is looks like concentrated urine. The aroma is on par. Intense sour scents and perhaps a little lemon citrus are buried under a dirty urinal cake fragrance. Pretty gross really. Surprisingly, the taste completely transcends the other attributes. Fruity lemon-zinging tartness clears a path for a lingering grain flavor that imparts a little sweetness. The aftertaste reminds me a little of smarties candy, but with an obvious sour note. If you've ever enjoyed sour patch kids, this may be your beer. The body is thin & light, with a nice watery texture. Absolutely minimal carbonation. Just enough to give it a hint of effervescence. Surprisingly quenching, which invites the next curious gulp. One of the intriguing elements of this experience is that the sourness washes away pretty quickly, leaving behind a little residual saltiness. Then the salinity makes you feel compelled to take another drink. While this is certainly not for everybody, I have to imagine that the target audience agrees that Westbrook executed this one very well. If anything, this one got me curious to see what other Gose offerings are like. Isn't that the point of craft beer? To expand your horizons? Mission accomplished Westbrook.

's Bier des Tages: Westbrook Brewing (Mt. Pleasant, SC): "Gose":our aroma. Hazy, straw color. Oh! Starts with a great fruitiness, lots of sour, and malt behind it. Moves into a more pronounced sourness, then the salt comes through with coriander. As this diminishes, there is a nice, lovely wave of malt.

This is stunning. Everything I like about the style. This one is markedly more salty than others, but that works very well.

07/23/14 on the bottom of the can (maybe I shouldn't have let this one sit around so long)

A: Pours a cloudy pale orange. Small and very fizzy light tan head. Head fizzes out like soda in just a matter of two seconds. Zero lacing or any sort of head retention.

S: Wheaty with some coriander I think? Very witbier-esque except there is a notable tartness to it. Lemon peel I'd say.

T: Huh. Pretty much as described. Wheaty initially with that coriander (again, like a witbier) but immediately turns sour in the middle with a nice tart lemon peel. Not super salty but I get a bit of it in the finish. Flavors are big, bold and in your face. Some of the strongest flavors I've ever had in a 4% brew.

M: Light body but smooth. Quite sour, giving it a refreshing kick.

O: Interesting brew. Lots of sour citrus backed by the smoothness of the wheat. Drinkability is fairly good, though it's a little TOO sour to be truly sessionable, IMO. It is quite crisp and refreshing though, one of the best in that regards. Very nice example of the style, perhaps the best I've had (not that there's too many of them out there).

Smell: tart lemon lime dry fruit salt.
Taste: a really nice tart lemon upfront followed in the middle of the mouth with a nice saltiness lime green apple finishes with vinegar more salt and a slight spice.
Feel: light to medium body really dry in the finish. Really refreshing
Overall: a nice tartness that is balanced out with a good amount of salt. Really tasty and refreshing.

T: An interesting combination of sour and saltiness. The two flavors play off of each other in an interesting manner. With each sip I am not sure if I like it yet I want more.
M: A lingering tartness and a little salty taste on the tongue leave you wanting another sip
O: I never had anything like thi before. While I wouldn't drink this every day, I am thouroughly enjoying it. Everyone should try this beer at least once.

Taste is big on citrus: Lemon/lime/mandarin orange, doused in fine salt. This is what a corona with lime dreams it could taste like. Pale wheaty malt sweetens the puckering fruit. Hops and alcohol are almost non existent.

Mouthfeel is very light and somewhat astringent. Carbonation is high, head froth left too soon.

Overall great refreshing beer for a hot day. Sour, salty, hints of sweetness, really satisfies the palate. Just wish the head was present for the mouthfeel, thats the only real flaw to this Gose.

Pours a crystal clear gold color. No cloudiness whatsoever. Thick frothy white head dissipates steadily leaving a thin layer of bubbly foam that disintegrates into a thin ring of foam along the outside.

Smell is a touch sweet and fruity. Strong salt notes along with some sour notes.

Taste follows the nose with an initial blend of salt, sour, and sweet fruity notes giving way to a strong wheat backbone. Dry finish, lingering sourness on the tongue. Pretty true to style and well crafted.

Cloudy straw body with very little initial head that fades to nothingness. Can't say it is a very attractive beer but on par for most sours.

Sour mash that has a distinct apple and lemon fruitiness to it. Noticeable amounts of coriander and complex spice over the barely detectable grains. Some must and dough in there. I enjoy that the aroma is not overly grainy.

Wow what a trip, straw and sourdough grains are very tightly integrated with a lemon and dampered lime and apple fruit and lactic tartness. A dusting of mustiness and softening meringue. The sea salt balance is absolutely perfect adding an element of complexity that also reduces tartness.

Not grainy at all is my take from this, medium body and very well balanced. Carbonation is active but not overbearing. I would prefer that this be a bit more dry since the tartness is smoothed over. Very drinkable.

Gone too soon, a refreshing and balanced gose that doesn't come off as grainy or watery. Probably the best version of this style currently available in the states.